Geshe Thupten Dorjee from the University of Arkansas will receive the “The Outstanding Faculty Award” which is sponsored by the Student Government and the Arkansas Alumni Association.
Geshe Thupten is currently the only Tibetan holding Geshe Lharampa degree (the highest Tibetan Buddhist doctorate equivalent to the Doctor of Philosophy) who is a full-time professor at the American university.
The award is typically won by faculty members at Arkansas who have been teaching for 10-20 years. However, Geshe Thupten is already named the winner of the award after being in Arkansas for just 18 months.
Approximately 80 faculty members were nominated for the award; 30 were invited to attend the banquet, and of these, only three were selected to win the Outstanding Faculty Member Award. Geshe Thupten was one of those three.
In their letters of nomination, Geshe Thupten’s students reported that he was the most extraordinary teacher that they had ever had, and that he had changed the very way they think about their lives and what they might do with their lives in the future.
Clearly, it is a wonderful and well deserved honor for Geshe Dorjee, who is originally from Drepung Loseling – Minyak Khangste in India. He will receive his award at a special banquet on February 21, 2008. In attendance will be the Deans of the Colleges of the University as well as the Provost of the University and perhaps the Chancellor as well.
The University of Arkansas was founded in 1871 as the original land-grant and state University for Arkansas. Currently the University of Arkansas’s main campus is in Fayetteville where they have almost 20,000 students and 1000 faculty members. They have students and faculty from almost every state in America.
Click here to read more about Ven. Geshe Thupten Dorjee
Based on report filed by Teresa
